The Lead

In 2011, an earthquake triggered a massive tsunami that struck northern Japan, leaving thousands dead and causing billions of dollars in damage. It also resulted in nuclear meltdowns, including the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Plant. Now, the government is considering something drastic: building a 250 mile chain of cement sea walls more than five stories tall.

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Last week, the island nation of Vanuatu was hammered by a massive cyclone that destroyed or damaged 90 percent of the buildings in Port Vila, the nation’s capital. The challenges of recovering from a catastrophic weather incident of this magnitude in a country like Vanuatu are going to be far more amplified than they would elsewhere. Still, residents did their best to prepare for the storm.

The Business Continuity Institute (BCI) has declared the week of March 16 Business Continuity Awareness Week. The theme this year will be “testing and exercising business continuity plans.” The BCI has gathered webinars, blogs, materials and other information in an effort to help both experienced business continuity professionals and those new to the industry.

Infectious diseases are certainly not a new topic on here at Continuity Insights. Ebola, Measles and MERS have all been in the news cycle in the last year and have been covered extensively on the website and in the CI Bulletin. I am beginning to understand why experienced BC pros are concerned about and plan for infectious diseases even if the odds of getting them are unlikely.

With so many threats out there, it can be easy to focus on the big, catastrophic event that everyone hears about on the news. The small stuff gets pushed aside and in some cases, completely forgotten about. Taking care of these issues is critical for BC pros.

Bill Highleyman Managing Editor of Availability Digest, discusses placing trust in the public cloud and how specific examples of cloud failures, some by large and well respected companies, demonstrate that the technology still has a long way to go,

Social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram allow for messages to be distributed to massive amounts of people very quickly and can be a valuable tool for business continuity professionals. However, a single unfortunate message or poorly timed tweet can cause serious damage, especially to an organization or individual’s reputation.

It might seem as if one can never be too prepared for a disaster, but being prepared takes time and costs money, something that many business continuity professionals are searching for more, not less of. BC pros need to plan for a wide range of events, from weather to cyber to workplace violence, but can it be taken too far?

The game is one of the United States’ most high profile events of the year. More than 70 thousand people attended the game itself, and millions more watched as home. It could also make for an interesting business continuity case study, as dozens of BC topics are at play.

Technology has made working from home commonplace and allowed organizations to stay efficient and avoid downtime, particularly during weather events. The benefits of being able to work without being in the office are clear and are a simple way to show the benefits of business continuity to senior management.

For business continuity professionals, case studies can be an important tool in improving their programs. Having the opportunity to hear a first-hand account of a plan being developed or put into action can go a long way in finding out what works, what doesn’t and what kind of challenges are on the horizon.

In light of breaches at companies like Home Depot and Target, the president is proposing legislation that would require companies to inform their customers whether their data has been compromised within 30 days called the Personal Data Notification and Protection Act. The act would also make it a crime to sell customers’ identities overseas.

Workplace violence is a very real issue and something BC professionals should be aware of. It will likely never be as extreme as the Charlie Hebdo attack and it may not be an act of international terrorism, but the possibility of an act of violence must be considered.

The book is closed on 2014 and with a new year comes a new set of resolutions. To help grow your business continuity program, consider making a 'continuity resolution,' to build support from executives and change the way they look at resilience.

Hybrid clouds are making it possible for enterprises to take advantage of the mobility and convenience of managing some resources via the public cloud without sacrificing the security of managing critical applications and sensitive data within an on-premise private cloud. If you’re considering joining the ranks of hybrid cloud adopters, take the time to ask yourself some key questions to decide if hybrid cloud is right for you.

Emily Lord, Director of Operations for RX Response discusses supply chain resilience, the importance of staging exercises for organizations and the results and lessons learned from a nationwide digital exercise the group ran earlier this year.